I did a 3D studio animation of this park many years ago for a fountain company. I think they were bidding on modifying or installing new fountains. I’ve actually never been there. It’s weird to see a photo of what to me only existed in a CAD model until today.

Fortunately, I do not pass by this disappointment very often. However, each time I do I am reminded of the old grand dame, The Shamrock Hotel, that was reduced to rubble to be replaced by perhaps the ugliest park not only in Houston but perhaps all of Texas. To think money was spent designing it building it and currently maintaining it only reinforces my hopes that someone will come along and say – let’s reinvent this space as a plus to the area instead of the useless eyesore it is.

Wasn’t the greatest building, because Frank Lloyd Wright said so? The same guy who hated every skyscraper in New York City?

This was Houston’s most famous landmark before the Astrodome. It was what people around the country thought of when they thought of the city. The point of the Frank Lloyd Wright story should be that the nation’s most famous architect HAD to make a visit there and give his opinion, it was that renowned. It captured a whole era of the city’s history – its rollicking, mid-century, oil-rich extravagance – better than any other building.

But it made sense to tear it down because, gosh, it would have required renovating and updating. Oh, and the ceiling heights were low! With that reasoning, any historic building in the world would be torn down at some point.

McCarthy, a legend in his own right, with a dream in his mind built the Shamrock Hotel, it was one of a kind, and promoted the grand openening like no other. That opening was so popular,that it became chaos.
Honor the man, that chased the dream, put everything on the line, and eventually lost the property, but he put his heart into it, and along the way lived the American dream.

That’s the American’s chose. The Houstonian spirit to reach for the stars.

FLLW visited the Shamrock to receive a gold medal from the American Institute of Architects. Leaving a boring cocktail party Wright gave future architect E. Fay Jones and a fellow student from Rice a private tour of the hotel with its 67 different shades of green. Great pity the community lost the fantastic pool but it is good to see the Burgee park improve with the growth of the vegetation.